Tuesday, March 20. 2007
"The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by precedent, by implication, by erosion, by default, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other - until the day when they are suddenly declared to be the country’s official ideology.” Ayn Rand, as quoted in Atbashian's piece posted yesterday
Monday, March 19. 2007
 He challenges Al Gore to a debate. Bravo to the Viscount. Al would be a fool to agree to it.
It's good to see that neither Viscounts nor gauntlets are entirely obsolete. On the radio last night, Drudge read the list of questions that he would like to pose to Al. One question that I would like to ask him would be this: If we are simply in a natural cyclical variation, as has happened forever, would it make any difference to him?
"They have not wanted peace at all; they have wanted to be spared war- as though the absence of war was the same as peace." Dorothy Thompson (h/t, Flopping Aces)
 500 passengers. The A380 will visit NYC. It "handles like a Ferrari?" What a fine target for the jihad.
The Utrecht riots. A taste of things to come? The Blackstone IPO. This is a big deal. Prof. B. Nice catch for Simpson Thatcher. Barcelona: Modernism, From Gaudi to Dali, at the Met. Man stabs bear to death to save his dog. First and last company picnic. S,C andA We never miss an opportunity to slam the Beeb. Cultural Marxism. Good term. Indoctrinate U. A new documentary about free speech on campus. 20% of Americans are illiterate? Driscoll A government plot, says Ray Nagin. I thought he was the government. No wonder Mexico wants open borders Follow the money. (one-way open borders, of course. Try moving to Mexico - you cannot). Slavery alive and well in Sudan. Where are the protests?
Steve of Hog on Ice wants to publicize his writing. We like him. We'll help. A sample:  GOD: Adam! It is I, your creator!
ADAM: Hi, Lord! You’re just in time for lunch! GOD: What’s cooking? Smells great! ADAM: [Turning a spit over an open fire.] That thing you gave me. The one that kept making that awful squeaking noise. GOD: What are you talking about? ADAM: You know. It looked sort of like me, but it was short and had a big rear end, and it stood around with its hands on its hips, squeaking at me from daylight to dusk. It kept telling me what to do, so I hit it with this big rock. GOD: Adam! You have slain the helper I gave you! I am mightily displeased! ADAM: Sorry! Was I supposed to keep it? It ate all my food, and it blamed me for everything, and when I lay down to rest, it lay down next to me and put its big cold feet on me. It was really annoying. And I noticed it had a lot of nice meat on it. GOD: What have you done to her? ADAM: I started with a nice cider vinegar and cayenne brine, and then I used a cumin-and-pepper dry rub, and now I’m slow-cooking her over mesquite coals. GOD: That’s not what I meant! And why are you eating meat? I gave you every fruit and every herb-bearing seed! ADAM: I got that covered, too. I’m roasting corn on the cob. GOD: I love corn on the cob! ADAM: And I found that if you take the leaves from a certain plant and dry them and put them in hot water with honey, you get this stuff. I call it “sweet tea.” GOD: I haven’t eaten a thing since breakfast. ADAM: Pull up a rock and sit down. There’s plenty. GOD: I really shouldn’t. My weight. ADAM: Go on! You look fabulous. GOD: I feel puffy. ADAM: Never! You’re fishing. GOD: Look, if I give you another one of these things, you have to promise not to eat it. ADAM: Why would I want another one? What is it good for? GOD: [Whispers] ADAM: [slaps God on the arm] Get out of here! That’s the craziest thing I ever heard. GOD: It’s more fun than it sounds. ADAM: Can you make one that doesn’t squeak all the time? GOD: No, that’s part of its nature. But if it starts to drive you crazy, light one of these and it will leave you alone. [hands Adam a box of cigars] ADAM: [holding a corona] Okay. Won’t be much of a fire.
 Moonbattery summarized Saturday's anti-war march in DC, as well as the much larger counter-protest - which received far less news attention. Here.
The NYT also noted than many of the marchers were puzzled by what the march was really about. Blue Crab. Most of the earnest anti-war folks were unaware that they were allied with communist revolutionaries with larger agendas. Lenin's "useful idiots." Also, related to the links above and the piece below, Barone on the Blame America First crowd. A quote: "They always blame America first." That was Jeane Kirkpatrick, describing the "San Francisco Democrats" in 1984. But it could be said about a lot of Americans, especially highly educated Americans, today. In their assessment of what is going on in the world, they seem to start off with a default assumption that we are in the wrong. The "we" can take different forms: the United States government, the vast mass of middle-class Americans, white people, affluent people, churchgoing people or the advanced English-speaking countries. Such people are seen as privileged and selfish, greedy and bigoted, rash and violent. If something bad happens, the default assumption is that it's their fault. They always blame America -- or the parts of America they don't like -- first.
Read the whole fine essay. (thanks, Buddy). And read today's preceding piece: The Gospel of John and Yoko. Image from Michelle's piece on the protests. She has lots of photos.
 The enduring 1960s "mad morality" isn't entirely dead. An explanation of progressive morality by Atbashian at Pajamas Media. (h/t, Instapundit). A few quotes:
But what is the source of a morality that forbids to fight terrorism and views the United States as the enemy? Clearly it isn’t rooted in the American tradition. Such a morality manifested itself on a massive scale for the first time in the 1960s. Many of today’s protesters admittedly crave to recapture the spirit of those days. Many will be singing John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
and In the “progressive” book of virtues, American values are the quintessence of evil. So if you are a “progressive” and you aren’t mad at this country, that just means you’re neither honest nor consistent. But then again, because living by this dead-end moral code is logically impossible, one has to resort to hypocrisy and seek compromises, forever balancing on the edge of madness.
Read the whole thing. Image: John and Yoko, 1975.
"From the Babylon of Gilgamesh to the post-Eden of Noah, every age has viewed climate change cataclysmically, as retribution for human greed and sinfulness." Philip Stott, in a piece at ABC News. Yes, the Flood is engraved in our consciousness, isn't it? Not only in the Bible, but in every fourth old blues song.
That's a Maggie's Farm pal fishing in Patagonia recently. (The Mrs. is quite handy with a camera.) With all of the snow we have up here in the northeast, and a driveway with two inches of ice, it's hard to imagine that our trout season opens soon. Over the next week or two, we will post some fishing items. 
Sunday, March 18. 2007
A cool physics teacher and a true American character. Synthstuff
 Defending the honor of the Confederate flag. AOL News. We already explained why we honor it, and it ain't racist. Nobody remembers that wealthy Yankees had slaves during the war until the Emancipation Proclamation. We honor our southern brethren at Maggie's Farm every chance we get, for their valiant and hopeless struggle for freedom. And we are sort-of glad that they lost that effort - it was probably for the best in the long run. But worth all of those brave young lives? I doubt it. Slavery was a goner, anyway.
Did you like Al Gore's green zinc mines? The Tennessean Steve Emerson on CAIR. What do people think, that they are like the NAACP? Powerline video The "protests" in DC yesterday. A quote from Rick's piece: History ended yesterday. Or at least one version of it. Or perhaps it didn’t end as much as it was overthrown, trampled by the feet of 30,000 ordinary Americans who gathered on the mall and along the broad avenues in Washington to confront those who have, either wittingly or witlessly, given aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States for more than 40 years.
Wow! The WaPo actually noticed! Sunday evening tax music: Keb' Mo, Angelina. How good is this guy? And the best blues guitarist in the world - bear with it - wobbly at first. Impossible not to love this guy. White folks just don't move with music, do they? It's a genetic defect. Also, some rather old Buddy Guy, showing off a bit on The First Time I Met the Blues.
Very cool video. They don't bother to beep the horn. But what I noticed most was the traffic. If things are so bad, why all the traffic? It reminds me of driving in midtown NYC.
 This is a re-post from 2005
Hawthorne, from Anchor Rising blog, with a piece on public policy decision-making entitled: A Call to Action: Responding to Government Being Neither Well-Meaning nor Focused on the Public Interest. Quote: ...the question arises regarding whether American citizens should continue to assume the actions of government are well-meaning and focused primarily on the public interest. The answer is no. Why this claim? Just think about it. Most American citizens have personal stories about how various public sector players (politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, and other parties with an economic stake in government actions like corporations and unions) act in their own self interest and not in the public interest. In fact, the bottom of this posting contains numerous previous postings which provide examples of such behavior. The balance of this posting will elaborate on public choice theory, which explains why we cannot assume government is either well-meaning or focused primarily on the public interest. The posting then concludes with specific recommendations in a Call to Action.
Read entire.
2 Corinthians 5, 16-24 16From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Saturday, March 17. 2007
At Sippican Cottage. He must be at least half Irish to report this tale.
 In the snow, today: Fox Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White Throated Sparrow, Tufted Titmouse, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, Goldfinch, Slate-Colored Junco. Plus a very cold-looking Robin taking the last few holly berries.
Not too exciting, but it's good to see them all enjoying the free lunch. And you never know when you might see something unusual. Image: Fox Sparrow. Our eastern version of this large sparrow is rusty red, and likes to scratch on the ground.
We aren't into cat blogging (or cats), but we'll make an exception this time. This pussy cat was haunting someone's back deck in the snow in Mason, Texas recently, trying to get a better look at two young kids playing on the floor inside. (Thanks, BL.) Read this, if you like to hang out in Mountain Lion territory.  
The Dubliners with the Pogues (h/t, Tangled). Damn good. The lyrics are here. Happy St. Paddy's.
 In New England it is traditional to put your peas in on St. Patrick's Day. I like to grow Snow Peas and Sugar Snap peas.
To do that enjoyable task today would entail literally planting the Snow Peas in the snow. They'll have to be late this year.
 Bill Clinton's ongoing pussycat chasing. Not sure people will want more of this in their White House. I mean, like, it's OK if it isn't general knowledge, but when it's indiscreet, it is tacky.
Europe of the future. Video. No Pasaran. Whoa. Watch this, UK citizens: you are getting there. African medicine. The President of Gambia has discovered the cure for AIDS. Something for Africa to feel proud about. Are conservatives losing the internet wars? Hog on Ice thinks so. There is no conservative Soros to pay and to organize bloggers, and most conservatives are too busy with work, family, sports, volunteering, etc. to have time to read, much less to write, for blogs. The tunnels of Passchaendaele. BBC. Now potato fields, filled with blood. Painful to contemplate. Has anyone forgiven Germany? Hirsi Ali: Hero. TCS Happy Abortion! Send her a card. She'll appreciate it. Reasoned Audacity. Yes, they make cards, but I doubt Hallmark makes them, yet. Ham Nation News. Video. She is cute and funny. Buddhism having a big resurgence in Vietnam. I enjoy reading that. Religion is a sign of freedom from the state. More Gandhi bashing. Powerline. Who made this jerk a saint? And why did I just buy it, without thinking, for so long? More on the Shadow Wolves. Cool. They are hunting Al Quaida in Afghanistan. Synthstuff Be Here Now. Ram Dass has a website. Leisure in the USA: Everyone has more (if they want it), but the higher your income, the less you get. That figures. Hard workers work hard. If money is your goal, you don't focus on leisure. The Constitution is just an old piece of paper. Yglesias - read the comments on the Second Amend. (h/t, Althouse). Why does the Left want to take my guns away? Why do they care so much? I hardly ever shoot people, without good reason. Bin Laden, in 2001 (h/t, Townhall): We experienced the Americans through our brothers who went into combat against them in Somalia, for example. We found they had no power worthy of mention. There was a huge aura over America -- the United States -- that terrified people even before they entered combat. Our brothers who were here in Afghanistan tested them, and together with some of the mujahedeen in Somalia, God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin, caring for nothing. America left faster than anyone expected. It forgot all that tremendous media fanfare about the new world order, that it is the master of that order, and that it does whatever it wants. It forgot all of these propositions, gathered up its army, and withdrew in defeat, thanks be to God.”
Friday, March 16. 2007
 The bogeyman Christian is gonna getcha. A quote from Sam Harris in the LA Times piece, titled God's Dupes (h/t, Villainous):
Ordinary fundamentalist Christians, by maintaining that the Bible is the perfect word of God, inadvertently support the Dominionists — men and women who, by the millions, are quietly working to turn our country into a totalitarian theocracy reminiscent of John Calvin's Geneva. Christian moderates, by their lingering attachment to the unique divinity of Jesus, protect the faith of fundamentalists from public scorn. Christian liberals — who aren't sure what they believe but just love the experience of going to church occasionally — deny the moderates a proper collision with scientific rationality. And in this way centuries have come and gone without an honest word being spoken about God in our society.
Dang. That clever Sam Harris figured out that we Christians really want a theocracy, and want nothing more than to behead all those who will not kneel to Christ and his right-wing mission in America. It is astonishing how much he understands about the covert machinations of the Christian faith, and our intentions for America. Who spilled the beans? Who was the leaker? Armitage? Rove? Bush himself? We do indeed hide behind nominal Christians like wolves in sheep's clothing - that is how diabolically sneaky we are. And Bush is our secret Dear leader, but shhhh - don't tell anybody about our ultra, ultra Secret Plan to sneak sharia God's law into the US, like hanging all gays and banning abortion and stoning for adulterers and all that other cool stuff. Read Sam's brilliantly penetrating, earth-shaking, Pulitzer-worthy expose of the dastardly Christian plot against good, old-fashioned, pagan, communitarian America here. My questions: Why doesn't he wonder what we evil ones are waiting for to institute the theocracy we desire? And why haven't we done it already, since we already have Bush as a dictator? And, third, what planet does this dude live on? Is Pluto still a planet? No, I guess not anymore. Tell me, Dr. Sanity, or Dr. Bliss - does this guy qualify as paranoid? Or just plain ignorant? His lack of tolerance for others seems positively hostile...
The snow and ice show no signs of quitting. Just great. Gives me an excuse to spend a few moments creating another new blogroll category - Media Watchers. Besides moving some existing sites to it, I will add Biased BBC and Buzzmachine.
“After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood." Fred Thompson, early in his Senate career. (H/t, Dinocrat)
Live, right this moment, from our corner of Yankeeland. That's one of the dwindling woodpiles. The lousy camera doesn't pick it up, but it's snowing heavily and accumulating rapidly. Schools closed because the amateur bus drivers can't handle 7" of fresh snow: they don't use chains anymore (on the tires, not on the kids - we still use chains up here on the kids, when appropriate). Avoiding litigation, no doubt. To readers who don't get this white stuff where you live: eat your hearts out! It is a beautiful thing. Now it's time to add a log or two to the fire and worsen global warming or cooling or malaria or whatever. 
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